Abstract: Teacher education programs use the process of clinical supervision (planning conference, field observation, and feedback conference) to continually work with student teachers while they are engaged in the teaching process to support and assist them in improving upon their educator practices. This study explored the learning outcomes from the implementation of a clinical supervision program for the training of approved clinical instructors (ACIs) in athletic training.
Three ACIs with varied level of experience (12, 5, and 1 year) participated in the program over a four week time period. Pre and post intervention measures of the percentage of time spent using identified clinical educator behaviors were calculated using a systematic observation tool, Dondanville's (2005) Observational Record of Clinical Educator Behavior (ORCEB). The findings show that all three ACIs increased the use of clinical educator behavior that promoted active learning (explaining, demonstrating, and questioning), while simultaneously decreasing those behaviors that do not promote learning in the clinical environment (working in office, unrelated conversations, and treating athletes without student interaction).A post-intervention ACI survey and focus group were also conducted. Both reflected positive changes in ACI perception and behavior following the intervention. All three ACIs agreed or strongly agreed that the intervention had positive impact on their role as an ACI and created a positive learning experience.